23rd Birthday: Scraplift

Twenty-third Birthday

Some 2 1/2 years later, and I've finally got around to scrapping the most fabulous birthday of my life. Thank you Handmade Love and Shannon for prompting a scraplift and for providing some great inspiration.

The Story:

When I turned 23, I had only been in London a month, had just barely gotten settled, and was in need of a big to do. Talking amongst my girls, we discovered that Nayeli and I were birthday twinnies. She's exactly a year older than me so of course we decided to have a joint party. Someone along the way had the idea to do a booze cruise and spending a night cruising the Thames sounded like the perfect way to celebrate our birthday. We had a really great turn out, 40 some Mountbattens came. And surprisingly, with all of the boozing and cruising, everyone was super chill and no drama occurred. The perfect kind of night out for me! I was also pumped to get to wear the reject graduation dress I'd picked up on my last trip to New York. Loved it! It was the launching point for the design of these layouts.

Birthday Cruise

The Page:

Since my dress had some pops of yellow, I wanted to highlight it in these pages. The scalloped patterned paper from Studio Calico inspired the addition of the turquoise and it turned out that faux wood patterned paper became a theme. The first page features a favorite photo of me and Sarah. I think she was teasing me with a cigarette. I wasn't biting...or rather smoking. The background is an old Basic Grey sheet. It has a lot of pink tones which did not go with my color scheme at all so I took Shannon's inspiration layout and moved all of the page elements up, in order to hide it. Using a tutorial from Studio Calico, I handmade the brown swirly/circular paper flower. Finished with strips of the scallops I cut from the patterned paper, added a ribbon trim and some Thickers. Viola!

The second page was all about balance and that amazing bright yellow wood grain. I wanted to highlight yellow in this design and the sheet from Studio Calico's Home Front line was too inspiring not to use. Strategically placed the photos and the patterned paper and added my journaling. I feel like it really offset these dark night time photos, gave them a new energy. Which is what they needed because I wanted to emphasize what a blast I had that night. I also wanted to add as many photos as possible but even the 10 featured here aren't nearly enough to do the whole night justice, nor showcase half the friends who came. I really could waste another 1000 words on the fun to be had that night, but this isn't the platform nor the place ;) Let's just say it was a too fun party that I'll remember for the rest of my life!

Thanks for sharing in my ride down birthday way. I'd love to hear about your favorite birthday! Leave me a comment :)

xxbesos

j.leija